


When a Door Closes, Break Open a Window

by SleepySsnail



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Barry Allen is The Flash, Black Friday, Brothers, Car Accidents, Cisco Ramon Needs A Hug, Cisco Ramon is Vibe, Dante Ramon Lives, Earth-14, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Barry Allen/Caitlin Snow, Minor Cisco Ramon/Earth-2 Harrison "Harry" Wells, Multiverse, Oblivious Cisco Ramon, One-Sided Attraction, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining Harry, Vibe Powers (The Flash TV 2014), to a degree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27941024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepySsnail/pseuds/SleepySsnail
Summary: Cisco didn't know what he’d been expecting when he was left out of everyone’s plans for the holiday weekend, and decides to take matters into his own hands. True, breaching to another world for Thanksgiving weekend to spy on his dead brother’s doppelganger wasn’t exactly the most practical or normal thing to do, but if he could chalk it up to sightseeing and get away with it he was going to.The only thing Cisco didn't account for? Getting caught and finding out that his doppelganger wasn't around anymore, which made him prime for the taking. But like everything else he's had to deal with since the team started forgetting about him, Cisco was gonna roll with it and pray he wouldn't regret his decision.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Cisco Ramon, Barry Allen/Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon & Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon & Dante Ramon
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	When a Door Closes, Break Open a Window

**Author's Note:**

> I've reached a point in my writing where I don't care how good something is as long as I write all the scenes I've dramatically rehearsed in my head multiple times, and make sure the general idea makes sense . So here we are, finally getting this out after thinking about it since August.

If asked Cisco would say the worst Thanksgiving he ever had was when he stayed at the dorms during his sophomore year of college. His roommate decided to stay at the school for the holiday too, and in one night ate three family size bags of chips, an entire rotisserie chicken, got wasted, and threw up what looked to be twice the mass of the chicken before passing out, leaving Cisco to deal with the mess.

Somehow, this was worse than that. At least then Cisco knew he didn’t have any close friends or family who wanted him around for the holiday.

Before the car crash Cisco actually planned to spend Thanksgiving with his family. For the first time in years Cisco was actually looking forward to going to his family’s home to help his mom and his aunts with the cooking like when he was little, listen to everyone exchange stories and updates on how they were all doing, and attempt to get along for his parents. He even brushed up on his guitar skills so he could surprise Dante during his annual thanksgiving piano recital and accompany him.

But those plans had been tossed out the window with Dante’s death, and everyone in the Ramon family changed their schedule. To their credit, Cisco’s parents did invite him to join them on their trip to visit extended family in another city, but it was done more out of courtesy than because they wanted their son’s company. Besides it wasn’t really something Cisco was interested in anyway. So with his blood relatives off celebrating in their own way, Cisco thought the next logical step would be for him to join Barry and Iris at Joe’s house for dinner. Cisco liked getting to be with them last year and enjoyed the fun friendly environment they made for him.

But the invite never came, which wouldn’t have bothered Cisco if Barry hadn’t openly invited Caitlin to join them for Thanksgiving right in front of him.

This wasn’t even a new development. First it had been not asking Cisco to join the rest of the team for drinks after a good night of Flash activity, but that had been while he was still working through Dante’s death and the smell of alcohol made his head spin. But even after Cisco came to terms with flashpoint and dropped his misplaced resentment towards Barry, he noticed that the team kept doing things without him. Twice was a coincidence but three was a pattern, and when Cisco heard Iris and Caitlin talking about how much fun they had during a team Flash karaoke night, it only made sense that he was being left out on purpose.

True, Cisco might’ve been acting overly sensitive about the ordeal, but even Harry had been invited to most if not all the events, even if he didn’t attend. Wanting to be with the people he cared about didn’t seem like too much to ask for.

Everyone had their Thanksgiving weekend scheduled. Caitlin had been exchanging recipes with Clarissa Stein for months, so it didn’t come as a surprise when she turned down Barry’s invitation so she could spend the weekend with the older woman trying out different dishes. It also went unspoken that the two ladies would be waiting up in hopes that Professor Stein and Jax would drop in for a visit. So Caitlin was busy, and Cisco wasn’t going to interrupt her time spent with a friend who had nothing to do with vigilantism or weird scientific anomalies. 

And Barry wasn’t exactly shy about how he, Iris, and Joe were all thrilled to spend the holiday with Wally, which was good that they were having a family event. Cisco just wished he was included in that.

The tipping point was the middle of the night on Wednesday—technically early Thursday morning—when Harry asked Cisco to open a breach for him to go back to Earth-2 to be with Jesse.

“You’re going to cook?” Cisco asked, surprised and a little disappointed at the news. He had silently hoped Harry would be around in case he got so desperate for company he could goad the man into working with him on one of the many projects he had been putting off. It was always more fun to work on stuff with another person, even if that person was Harry and he kept making remarks about whatever didn’t meet his standards and threw things around the lab.

“Believe it or not Ramon,” Harry said as he adjusted the bag he had slung over his shoulder, “I know my way around a kitchen. You’d be impressed.”

“Says the guy who eats Big Belly Burger and cup noodles like they’re going out of style,” Cisco scoffed.

Still, it was nice that Harry was going to be with Jesse. Father daughter bonding and all that. Cisco could be happy for Harry even if he felt a little sorry for himself. Unfortunately his sulking might’ve been a little too obvious as Harry kept glancing at Cisco when they were in the breach room preparing to send him off to Earth-2.

Dropping his bag to the ground with a loud thud, Harry made a big deal out of fixing his jacket cuffs before saying, “You know, you could join me if you want. Jesse would love having someone to help eat all the cranberry sauce, and you could see how Thanksgiving is done on a superior earth. ”

Laughing at how _Harry_ that sounded, Cisco shook his head and turned his Vibe goggles over in his hands. It was all too tempting to accept Harry’s offer and spend the weekend with him, but he didn’t want to intrude on Jesse’s time with her dad.

“You can even witness firsthand how capable I am in a kitchen,” Harry added, a level of implication in his tone.

Smiling at the extra incentive, Cisco bit his lip and said, “Thanks but I’ll find something to do.”

Harry’s didn’t look convinced of that, and maybe a little disappointed, but he didn’t push the issue which Cisco was grateful for. The last thing he needed before a long holiday weekend was to argue with Harry over something trivial and suffer his passive aggressive wrath when he returned from his trip.

“I’ll take you up on that offer another time,” Cisco said as he shook his hair back and slid on his goggles. “For now, next stop Earth-2. Bring me back a souvenir this time, okay?”

“I’m commandeer a snow globe from the gift shops for you,” Harry said, clapping Cisco on the shoulder as the breach opened. “Happy Thanksgiving Ramon.”

And then Harry was through the breach and it closed behind him, giving Cisco a chance to take off his goggles and rub his eyes. It was technically Thanksgiving, one of the few holidays Cisco had recently come to enjoy now that he felt like he actually had family and friends to spend it with, and none of them, with the exception of Harry, had invited him to come along.

If he asked or just plain showed up uninvited, Cisco was sure Barry would welcome him either way, but it was knowing after weeks of being left out that nobody wanted him around on Thanksgiving was what hurt. The fact that Harry of all people had offered Cisco the opportunity to stay with him and Jesse for the holiday was nice, but it didn’t do anything to lessen the ache from being left out by his closest friends. Worse, he had just begin to get along with Dante and had been looking forward to spending the holidays with him. 

Then an idea began to play in the back of Cisco’s mind. A terrible, disastrous, and potentially shenanigan inducing idea. And Cisco liked it. 

* * *

Cisco only vibed Earth-14 a handful of times, but there were a few things about it that stood out from the others. For one, the events of Earth-14—the particle accelerator, Barry becoming the Flash, and Dr. Wells acting like a shady weirdo—all applied to this world in almost the same way as Earth-1. For two, there was a much better selection of pastries at Jitters, as Cisco could now attest to first hand. And third, Dante was alive and actually had a good relationship with Cisco’s doppelganger.

He’d only had those brief vibes while he worked with Harry to hone his vibes and get a better sense of how to control them, but it was unmistakable that things on Earth-14 bore similar elements to what Cisco wanted for himself. There was no way he was going to try and switch places with his doppelganger, that could only end in disaster and being chased back to Earth-1 with torches and pitchforks. No, Cisco just wanted to watch and see his doppelganger interact with this world’s Dante and maybe compare what he did differently to make all of his team Flash like him so Cisco could try and emanate those same qualities. For the most part. Cutting back on well timed movie references wasn’t going to happen.

But setting that aside, Cisco was enjoying himself for the most part. Yes, he had hacked into a bank ATM and taken several hundred dollars of Earth-14 money and proceeded to pay for his hotel room with the stolen goods, but that was a problem for future Cisco to deal with. He’d bought a few other things with his stolen cash including a couple shirts to last him a day or two, toiletries, and a couple hats so he could mimic Harry’s poor attempt at a disguise.

At least Cisco knew if he tucked his hair up he’d look somewhat different, and with the few days stubble from not leaving the lab, he could probably go unrecognized by his doppelganger long enough to slip away if he was caught.

That was why he didn’t worry about slipping into a Denny’s at four in the morning wearing his beanie disguise to dig into as many chicken strips as he could stomach. It certainly wasn’t the best Thanksgiving meal, but it wasn’t the worst thing he could’ve gone with. 

Considering how late it had been when Cisco touched down on Earth-14, it didn’t surprise him when he slept through what little night was left and most of the day. Between running the comms for Barry and the all-nighters he had been pulling to keep up with upgrades the Flash suit needed, Cisco was exhausted. He just didn’t realize how fatigued he was until he was in a comfortable bed several earths away from those responsibilities.

From there the rest of the day and part of the night was spent wandering around Central City, taking note of the slight differences between the two earths. Cisco even managed to check out Jitters for an hour before they closed, careful to keep his head down and to stay alert for Iris in case she was still around. But she hadn’t been anywhere near the café, which gave Cisco a chance to sit in the corner nursing his coffee while he tried to vibe his or Dante’s doppelganger.

He hadn’t had as much success as he wanted. Aside from a couple short vibes he’d gotten off the table he selected, there hadn’t been much for him to glean about Dante or where and what team Flash would be doing anytime soon. That made it harder to figure out when to sneak into STAR Labs to observe his doppelganger in action.

There had been one vibe that caught Cisco’s attention. It wasn’t anything special, just a scene where Earth-14 Cisco and Dante playfully argued and kept trying to push each other out of the way to type on a computer. He’d say he didn’t learn anything from that vibe, but it would be a lie. If anything it confirmed the fact that Cisco’s doppelganger had the good relationship with his brother that Cisco himself wished he could have with Dante but never would. It was a little unsettling to know he was jealous of himself, and almost made Cisco think he should just go home, order Chinese food, and binge watch the first season of _The Mentalist_.

But something about those vibes only strengthened Cisco’s resolve. Knowing that in at least _one_ world he got along with Dante made Cisco determined to see his brother’s doppelganger, even if it was from a distance.

He tried to vibe the rest of the team when he got back to his hotel room and once while he was at Denny’s waiting for his milkshake, but aside from seeing Barry trip over his own feet while running on the treadmill Cisco had come up empty on them. It could’ve been because of how he still felt excluded by his own friends which might’ve made it harder to get a lock on their Earth-14 doubles, but Cisco wasn’t too worried about it. All he had to do was avoid doing anything that could trigger a vibe for his doppelganger, and stay away from anyone who could recognize him, which couldn’t be too hard.

* * *

_Cisco knew he was vibing when he realized he was standing in the cortex instead of lying in his bed at the hotel. The familiar sounds of the computers made him almost believe he was back home, the only thing that clued him in that he was experiencing the vibe was the feel of it all and how his doppelganger was arguing with Dante about something._

_“I just saying,” Dante said in that familiar know-it-all tone of his, “It’s not the best name you could come up with. I thought you were the one who was picky about these things.”_

_“I am,” vibe-Cisco said from where he was seated at the console, and in a second Cisco knew it was Earth-14 Cisco he was looking at. “But I like the sound of it.”_

_Crossing his arms Dante asked, “It’s not because Barry and Caity came up with it? You can say no.”_

_“Yeah, but I don’t want to,” E-14 Cisco snorted._

_Holding up his hands in mock surrender, Dante pulled his chair closer to the console to look at the notes scattered across the desk._

_Raising an eyebrow at what his doppelganger had come up with, Cisco moved to look at what had been sketched on the graph paper. Leaning over vibe-Dante to get a better look, Cisco let out a soft hum of approval. Apparently Earth-14 Cisco had an appreciation for style too, as the designs were for a jacket and vibrational gloves similar to Cisco’s own Vibe outfit. They were rough drafts for sure, but they were good and Cisco had to admit he liked the circular insignia on the jacket that was meant to rest above the wearer’s heart._

_“It looks dorky,” Dante said, snapping Cisco back to reality._

_Irritation flashed across E-14 Cisco’s face for a brief moment and he started to take the sketches back only for Dante to hold them above his head._

_Glaring at the action, Cisco sat back in his seat and stated, “It looks cool, and they’re preliminary designs. I can change things later but I’m going to run them by Hart first. He’s the one I got to impress.”_

_“Fair enough,” Dante said as he took a second look at the sketches, “Are you going to make shirts for yourself too?”_

_“Obviously,” Cisco said, his smile wide with no trace of forcefulness. “I can’t be the only one without merch. Besides, you know you want one.”_

_“I really don’t,” Dante snorted, sliding the notes back to his brother. “But if it makes you happy then go for it. Just leave me out of it.”_

_Vibe-Cisco let out a laugh at that, and Cisco couldn’t help but smile at the interaction. Putting his notes into a binder covered in stickers, E-14 Cisco asked, “You sure you don’t want a piano and code themed shirt? Nobody would question it.”_

_“Like I said the first fifteen times,” Dante grinned, reaching out to give vibe-Cisco’s shoulder a shove, “I’ll pass. Now let me do my job and go do your thing Pulse.”_

_If Cisco thought Earth-14 Cisco’s smile couldn’t get any brighter, it did. He missed being able to do that._

* * *

Black Friday was never really Cisco’s thing. Yeah, there were discounts and good deals as far as they eye could see, but Cisco wasn’t willing to be trampled to death by the masses just to get a few shirts and electronics. No, Cisco was more of a Cyber Monday kind of guy. Online shopping was more convenient, not to mention he didn’t have to worry about getting stabbed or punched over something.

However that didn’t stop him from hauling himself up after his vibe-dream to experience what Black Friday was like on a different earth. Harry had talked about it once, describing it to be as insane and sometimes crazed as it was on Earth-1. Even shoppers on Earth-2 knew to jump on a good deal when they saw one, even if that meant literally jumping on it to prevent anyone else from getting it.

Not to mention, Cisco needed a few more shirts. It might’ve been easier to go to a Laundromat to wash what he had with him, especially taking into account the fact that Cisco had worn the same grease stained pants going on three days, and unless he was actively working on something in the lab or was trapped in some evil metahuman dungeon with no access to detergent, there was no excuse to wear the same outfit for days on end. But Cisco had money—stolen money, but money nonetheless—and he wasn’t going to leave this earth without spending as much of it as possible on souvenirs for himself and maybe one or two for Harry since he did promise him a snow globe.

What Cisco expected to see in one of the smaller stores was a series of shirts that had the Flash emblem on them. Even if he was upset that Barry had forgotten about him, Cisco couldn’t help but snicker at the irony of making Barry wear it, especially when he noted that the Flash didn't go by that moniker on Earth-14, and instead stuck with the Streak. Did that mean the team was called team Streak? That just didn't sound right. Breathing a laugh at the nostalgic nickname as he grabbed one of the shirts for the speedster, Cisco checked the rest of the selection before eyeing a dark purple one for himself. It wasn’t Flash or Streak themed, but it had the word “Pulse” in large blocky letters and a series of wave patterns on it that reminded Cisco of the vibrations he saw when he used his goggles.

Then he remembered the vibe he had during the night, the drafts for a suit, and what Dante had called him, and now the circles on the shirt made sense. 

His doppelganger’s name was Pulse. Cisco could vibe with that. It wasn’t the best name he could’ve come up with, but it was cool and obviously he made an impression on the city if there were just as many stacks of his t-shirts as there were of the Streak’s.

Needless to say he was hooked. Even before he connected the dots Cisco planned on buying the garment, but knowing he had merchandise in this world just sealed the deal. It only got better when he looked at the tag to check the size and noticed that the copyright on both shirts belonged to STAR Labs.

“Damn that’s smart,” Cisco mumbled, suddenly wishing he thought to do that. But that was something to regret later, for now he had more shopping to do.

Three more shirts, a pair of sweatpants with the Pulse logo on them, a bag for Caitlin, and a Pulse mug for Harry, Cisco was ready to call it a day when he ran into someone. Literally. Well, more like someone else ran right into _him_ , but Cisco wasn’t the one who spilled a massive cup of coffee all over himself, so he wasn’t going to make a fuss over who was at fault.

“Sorry man,” Cisco said, wincing at the large coffee stain on the man’s shirt, “Wasn’t paying attention.”

“It’s fine, it was my fault,” the guy hissed as he dapped at his chest with a handful of napkins in a futile attempt to dry some of the spill.

“You sure?” Cisco asked, looking around for a place that had more napkins or water. “I could—”

“Cisco?”

It took a moment for Cisco to respond to how the stranger he ran into was more than familiar. Shocked recognition filled Earth-14 Barry’s eyes and suddenly he wasn’t bothered by the huge coffee stain on his shirt. 

Too much went through Cisco’s mind. There was no way he could try posing as his double—that could only end in disaster—Barry was still looking at him like he had risen from the dead, there was absolutely no way Cisco could talk himself out of this, and why on earth did he ever think a hat and a weekend’s worth of stubble would trick anyone? Oh, he was going to have _words_ with Harry when he got home about that stupid ball cap being a terrible disguise.

Right now though, Cisco was frozen in place and unable to make words happen as E-14 Barry took a step back to give Cisco a once over. Shaking his head and letting out a small laugh of disbelief, Barry ran a hand through his hair and said, “This is impossible, how—”

But Cisco didn’t stick around to listen. Turning on his heel Cisco wove through the people on the sidewalk, hoping for some stupid reason that Barry wouldn’t try to chase him down. He hopes were in vain because in a matter of seconds Cisco was in an alleyway with Barry’s hand on his shoulders to stabilize him from the dizzying feeling of being moved at super speed.

“Calm down,” Barry said in a gentle tone, similar to the one Cisco’s Barry used when he was trying to pacify terrified civilians. “I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to talk.”

Yanking his arm back from where Barry was still holding him, Cisco shook his head and tried to organize his thoughts. He needed to get away from Barry, lie down for a bit, and then figure out what else he was going to do, preferably in that order.

“Get off,” Cisco said, as he stepped back. He could open a breach easily enough, but what was there to stop Barry from following him through—

“Dude I just want to talk,” Barry insisted, holding out a hand in a friendly gesture. “We can go to STAR Labs and talk about this, get something to calm your nerves, and you can meet the team. They’re not going to believe this.”

Cisco didn’t know when his breathing became so rapid, but the mention of the team not believing Barry...that got the gears turning in his head.

“Good,” Cisco muttered, making eye contact with Barry.

A couple months ago everyone learned that a properly timed vibe blast could temporarily disable a speedster’s abilities. This was discovered during a day of sparring when Barry ran right into one of Cisco’s shots and ended up powerless for almost a whole day. If Cisco was right, a smaller more controlled one could disable E-14 Barry’s speed long enough for him to get through a breach and not be followed.

Grabbing onto Barry’s outstretched arm, Cisco yanked the taller man towards him, using the momentum to throw him off balance. Raising his other palm, Cisco shoved it against Barry’s abdomen and released a small sonic blast that clearly knocked the wind out of the speedster, but otherwise left him unscathed.

Quickly Cisco opened a breach, thankful Barry had pulled them into an alley so no one would see the obvious shimmering blue portal. Glancing back at Barry to see he had a hand to his stomach and a look of shock etched onto his features, Cisco stepped through the breach and into his hotel room. Dropping his things on the floor and shedding his jacket and hat, Cisco ran his shaking fingers through his hair and sat down on the bed.

He’d been caught. Worse, he’d been caught by Barry who couldn’t keep a secret to save his soul and was probably on his way to STAR Labs to alert everyone about the surplus Cisco roaming the streets. The only smart thing to do would be to diminish the chances of having to face E-14 team Streak by going home. That would be smart. Cisco was smart, so it only made sense that he’d do the smart thing. 

But he had _seen_ Barry. A Barry who was practically overjoyed to see him, even if he was a double, and who smiled at him like Earth-1 Barry had before flashpoint and everything had gone to hell in a hen basket. And maybe if that meeting, no matter how roughly it ended, was an indicator for how it would go if Cisco actually saw this world’s Dante, it might be worth the risk to stay a while longer. Even if it was just for another night.

Besides, with everything that had already happened over the extended weekend, what else could go wrong?

* * *

Everything. Everything could go wrong.

Breaching into STAR Labs wasn’t a problem, in fact it was kind of fun due to there actually being security. This STAR Labs kept the mandatory ID cards that needed to be scanned in order to enter different levels, which Cisco could appreciate and would have to implement once he got back home. Cisco could almost see why the Snart’s had so much fun breaking into places, there was something thrilling about being somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be with an escape plan quite literally at the tips of his fingers.

No, the problem arose when Cisco decided to take a peek into his doppelgangers workroom.

It was practically the same as Cisco’s, with the same layout, tools, and scraps in several large bins. There was even a worn grey and blue hoodie thrown over the back of E-14 Cisco’s desk chair, probably forgotten from when he packed up for the night. Still, Cisco was curious as to what his double was up to and had begun to snoop through the different toys that lay scattered around the workroom. There were a lot of projects that interested him, but Cisco had to admit his double was brilliant when he stumbled across the shell for a spherical drone.

He had only wanted to take a peek and see what his doppelganger had accomplished, nothing more. He wasn’t even going to tinker with it no matter how much his hands itched to assemble something. Cisco hadn’t thought much of it when he set the casing down on the workbench, and he certainly didn’t think when he decided to sit down.

Cisco only realized what a mistake he made when he touched Earth-14 Cisco’s jacket. He had only been trying to pull out the chair, but Cisco was quickly thrown into a vibe he hadn’t planned on.

_He was still in E-14 Cisco’s workroom, but when Cisco turned he came face to face with an angry Dante._

_“Bring him back,” Dante growled, taking a harsh step forward, “I know you can, so just do it!”_

_“I can’t,” Barry said dejectedly from behind Cisco. “I don’t know what will happen.”_

_“We’ll have Cisco back!” Dante snarled, marching up to Barry and grabbing him by the front of his shirt. “He’s my little brother! Go back and save him or I’ll make Wells do it!”_

_“I can’t,” Barry repeated, his eyes glassy and his chin trembling despite the resolve in his voice. “I’m so sorry—”_

_Before Barry could finish his apology, a loud crack echoed throughout the room from where Dante landed a punch on the speedster’s jaw._

_“You killed my brother!” Dante yelled as he gripped his knuckles._

_Something sick churned in Cisco’s stomach as the possibilities of what that meant flickered through his mind._

_Groaning Barry leaned heavily against the table he had been perched on while he held his jaw. Swallowing hard, Barry nodded and said, “You’re right. I should’ve been there.”_

_“He’s my little brother,” Dante said, his face turned towards the ground so his face was hidden. “He said everything would be alright.”_

_Nodding vaguely Barry stared at a spot on the wall while Dante stumbled over to Cisco’s workbench. Resting his hands on the hoodie that was draped over the back of the seat, Dante picked it up and held it to his chest before sinking into the chair and allowing his shoulders to shudder._

Yanking his hand back from the garment that sent him into the vibe, Cisco tripped backwards until he was supporting himself against one of the other tables. Everything about his encounter with Barry made sense now. The way the speedster had looked at him and talked to him, why he wanted to bring him to STAR Labs, it was because Earth-14 Cisco was dead.

Cisco was standing in a dead man’s lab. He was standing in his dead _double’s_ lab. Invading personal space was one thing, but this made Cisco feel all sorts of nasty and in seconds he was scrambling to breach out of there. He had just gotten his hands to cooperate in getting his goggles out of his pocket when a familiar voice filled the lab.

“Stop what you’re doing and put your hands up.”

Whether it was not being invited to spend Thanksgiving with his friends, or getting caught in his dead doppelganger’s lab, the multiverse really seemed to have it out for Cisco this week.

“Put your hands up,” Dante said, “Turn around slowly or I’ll shoot you.”

How the hell any version of Dante could be trusted with a gun was beyond Cisco, but it had to be better than Rupture and his scythe. 

“Alright, just don’t shoot me,” Cisco said, following the instructions, his vibe goggles still gripped in one hand.

Bracing himself for the potential of getting shot, Cisco turned around to face Dante’s doppelganger. As soon as Dante took a look at Cisco, a series of emotions flickered across his face, among those were disbelief, confusion, and...hope? 

“Cisco?” Dante asked, the shock he was experiencing creeping into his voice.

Silence fell over the two, and Cisco tore his eyes away from Dante to get a look at the weapon he carried only to note it was incredibly similar to Harry’s pulse rifle. Letting his arms fall to his sides, Cisco took a hesitant step backwards at the same time Dante stepped closer.

“Barry was right,” Dante mumbled. Letting his gun drop from where it had been aimed at Cisco’s chest, Dante asked dazedly, “How’d you get in here?”

“Okay just chill out a minute,” Cisco said, holding up a hand partially in an attempt to show he meant no harm and so he could counter a rifle blast if need be. “I’m leaving, alright? You’ll never have to see me again.”

Apparently that was the wrong answer.

Without taking his eyes off Cisco, Dante yelled, “Barry!”

Shoving his goggles on Cisco quickly turned to open his breach only for the familiar buzzing vibrations of a speedster to enter the room followed by a flash of lightning.

“Oh my god,” Barry said excitedly, “I _told_ you—”

“Stop him!” Dante snapped, shoving Barry forward.

Too much happened at once. Instinctively opening a breach, Cisco prepared to jump through only to notice Dante in the corner of his eye. He didn’t know what he expected from this world’s Dante, but Cisco certainly didn’t expect him to hoist his rifle again, potentially to shoot Cisco, while Barry left a trail of lightning around the lab that made his vision blur.

Despite the buzzing in the air from Barry’s lightning, Cisco could feel the vibrations around the speedster and knew he was about to be grabbed. He just didn’t account for Barry getting up in his space and taking hold of his wrists instead of his goggles. It was startling, and prompted Cisco to channel a vibe blast at Barry without thinking. 

With his concentration broken and the breach closing on him, Cisco barely made it through before it disappeared behind him. He didn’t even stop to see how hard the blast hit Barry, let alone if Dante tried to get a few shots in. 

Slumping on the floor with his back against the dresser of his hotel room, Cisco tried to organize his thoughts when he realized why Barry had gone for his hands instead of his goggles.

Locked around his wrists just below the sleeves of his jacket, were two black cuffs with a glowing purple light. They weren’t like the traditional power dampening cuffs Cisco made for the CCPD back home, those had blue lights and were joined together. These were more like bracelets and were probably made for a meta who simply didn’t want to have to worry about their powers. Now they were dampening Cisco’s abilities and his only way out of this place.

The adrenaline coursing through Cisco’s body seemed to fade all at once, and he was painfully aware of how he couldn’t feel his powers. They were there alright, but Cisco couldn’t sense things the way he normally did. It had taken some time, but he had grown used to being able to feel the vibrations of people around him and actually liked the extra sensory perception when it didn’t give him killer headaches.

Not being able to feel the vibrations of the people walking down the hallway was bad when it meant there was no way Cisco could open a breach with the dampeners on, which meant he was stuck here. He didn’t even know if this team Flash—Streak—whatever—was going to let him go or if they wanted to lock him up in the pipeline for experimentation. Knowing his luck, it was probably the latter.

* * *

“I told you! The theory of the multiverse is true! Ow!” Barry said, wincing as Caitlin pressed her hand against his stomach. “Caity that hurts.”

Making a face at the speedster, Caitlin stated, “It wouldn’t hurt if you avoided getting hit twice in one day. Now stay still, I need to make sure he didn’t make any of your organs explode.”

“I think we’d notice if that happened,” Dante called from the cortex. Seated at the computers, Dante ignored Barry’s whining while he watched the security feed from Cisco’s lab.

He hated to admit it, but Barry was right. When the man had stumbled into the cortex earlier that day with no speed, spouting nonsense about the multiverse and there being another Cisco, Dante had written him off as having been seeing things. Everyone knew espresso shots were dangerous in Barry’s hands, but nobody was willing to try and stop him from drinking an inhumane amount, even when they knew full well caffeine had a negative effect on the speedster.

But seeing a Cisco who was very alive and very much trying to be stealthy breach into the workroom was more than enough proof that Barry had been telling the truth. That kind of sucked. Dante nearly punched Barry for making such an insensitive joke when it hadn’t even been a full year since the accident, and now he needed to apologize or risk Caity’s wrath.

“Dante?” Caitlin asked as she stepped out of the med bay, a motherly look of concern on her face. “Is everything okay?” 

Letting out a long breath Dante sat back in his chair and folded his hands in his lap. “He’s a metahuman. Breached right into the lab.”

“Because doing it right in front of us wasn’t proof enough,” Barry joked.

“Excuse me for wanting solid evidence that my dead brother has a—a—”

“Doppelganger!” Caitlin provided excitedly, turning to give Barry one of her smiles.

Waving a hand, Dante nodded and said, “Sure, we’ll go with that. Point is, he has a doppelganger from another world?”

Making a face at the crude take of the multiverse theory, Barry sighed, “Pretty much. Oh man, does that mean I have one too? That would be so cool having two of me.”

“No it wouldn’t,” Dante said, trying not to imagine what it would be like to have _two_ Barry Allen’s on his hands. Resting his arms on the desk, Dante brought everyone back on topic by asking, “So what do we do now? Can you find him?”

Barry started to nod only to shake his head. Gesturing to where his stomach took most of the invisible blast, Barry explained, “Whatever he did made it so I can’t run. I mean I can run, but I’m not fast.”

“Does it wear off?” Caitlin asked, her voice containing the same enthusiasm it did when she discovered something new. “We should run tests.”

“Maybe we should hold off on the tests?” Barry suggested, but Caitlin was already off to prepare everything for her experiments. Sighing, Barry gave Dante a shrug and said, “Last time it wore off after a couple hours, but I wasn’t into a cabinet then. This might take a while. I can search the city later.”

“Or we could tell Wells to get his ass in gear,” Dante said, hauling himself up to sort through a series of potential metahuman reports that had been directed to them. “Where the hell is he anyway? I thought you called him?”

“I did,” Barry nodded, looking ever so much like a personified puppy. “But his phone’s off. Didn’t he tell you to stop calling him that?”

“Yeah,” Dante said, glancing up from the files, “But that’s what he gets for calling me Virgil all the time. Wrong name.”

“But Virgil did make an appearance in Dante’s Inferno,” Barry said, clamping his mouth shut once he noticed the unimpressed stare Dante was giving him. “I think he’s at the gallery, but I can text him”

“Of course he is,” Dante muttered. Sparing a glance at Barry Dante found himself unable to fake irritation at him anymore and shared a grin with the other. Giving Barry’s shoulder a fond shove, Dante said “Get Caity to call him and get his ass down here.”

“I’ll try,” Barry said with a smile, “But he might not answer. You know he’ll just roll in whenever he feels like it.”

“Well this is important,” Dante stated, glancing back at the computer where the security feed was still up.

Sensing the change in the air, Barry clapped a hand on Dante’s shoulder before making his way over to help Caity with her tests. Dropping the folders he had been holding, Dante sat back down at the computer.

It had taken a long time to reach a point where Dante forgave Barry for what happened and stopped blaming him, but spending the holidays without Cisco was something Dante had been dreading. It was different when Cisco simply chose to not join in with the Ramon family festivities, but that was before he and Dante repaired their relationship and had gotten used to things being good between them. 

Having a clone of Cisco from another world appear in the lab wasn’t something Dante thought possible, let alone expected to happen. Still, they dealt with weird things all the time, and if a doppelganger was next on that list, then Dante was ready to jump right in. 

Hitting play, Dante watched as the figure on the security feed flitted around Cisco’s lab picking things up and examining them with different looks of approval and fondness. Something hard clenched in Dante’s chest at how similar the double was to Cisco, but it gave him a strange comfort to see someone who looked like his brother wandering around the lab like it was his. Dante couldn’t help the smirk of amusement that crept onto his face when the video showed the Cisco-double start to examine an abandoned drone casing. Curiosity ran high in every Cisco apparently.

Dante was one click away from closing the cameras when video-Cisco froze in place, his body going stiff and rigid. Dante had witnessed that behavior far too often to ignore it, and after zooming in to get a better grasp of what this Cisco had touched, it was painfully clear his powers had activated.

“Caity,” Dante called, already making his way to the med bay where the woman was sticking electrodes to Barry’s skin. “Security feed caught Cisco’s double—”

“Doppelganger,” Barry corrected.

“ _Doppelganger_ ,” Dante repeated in a mocking tone, “Whatever, he caught a pulse off Cisco’s hoodie. He knows what happened.”

“Are you sure?” Caitlin asked as she jotted down a note. “He could’ve seen anything.”

Nodding in affirmation Dante asked, “Why else do you think he was trying to get out of here so fast?”

Barry and Caitlin exchanged a look, their silent communication was something Dante couldn’t understand even after hanging around them for so long. Taking up the rest of the electrodes, Barry finished placing them while Caitlin snatched up her phone and began to send a flurry of text messages.

“We should wait until morning before we bring him here,” Caity said, her fingers moving rapidly across the screen of her device. “He’s probably overwhelmed—”

“And we did suppress his powers,” Barry added.

“—and the last we need is to stress him out even more.”

Dante hated waiting but Caity did have a point, rushing into this could only end badly and he didn’t want to screw up a chance to talk to this Cisco.

“Hey,” Caitlin said, giving Dante a soft look, “We’ll find him.”

“I know,” Dante said, peering over the woman’s shoulder to see what Barry was doing. “Is Barry supposed to have an electrode on his forehead?”

* * *

Cisco had to give it to his doppelganger for designing the dampener cuffs to make sure they wouldn’t come off easily. Picking the lock had failed, and after the twentieth attempt Cisco resigned himself to watching TV while he waited for the Streak to come find him. No doubt the cuffs had tracking devices in them, that’s what Cisco would’ve added if he built them, so it was only a matter of time until Barry’s powers came back.

By the end of the third episode of NCIS, Cisco decided to go to sleep. If Barry showed up and decided to throw him in the pipeline while he was wearing sweatpants that was on him, but Cisco wasn’t going to stay up waiting for him. It had taken a while to fall asleep, but after staring at the ceiling for who knows how long Cisco managed to drift off, only waking up to his phone alarm and the faint glimmer of sunlight through the window.

He’d been tempted to go downstairs to get the hotel breakfast, but getting dragged off to the labs in the middle of eating wasn’t something Cisco wanted to experience, so he stayed in his room and waited. That turned out to be the right choice, because before long Barry had phased through the door and stopped at the foot of Cisco’s bed with a bright smile.

The next thing Cisco knew, he was in the middle of the cortex of STAR Labs with Barry fretting over the dampeners on his wrists while Caitlin opened a box of donuts.

“Would you give him some space?’ Caitlin asked, arranging a small pile of napkins next to the computer keyboards. 

“You’re one to talk,” Dante snorted as he entered the cortex, depositing several cups of steaming coffee on the table. “Weren’t you talking about getting a urine sample?”

Sputtering out a denial, Caitlin began bickering with Barry over how he wasn’t supposed to eat all the blueberry donuts this time. To say Cisco was confused would be an understatement. He had been expecting the pipeline or a series of diabolical tests, not coffee and donuts.

“Uh, excuse me,” Cisco said, interrupting the donut debacle. “Hi, am I supposed to play along with this or can we just fast-forward to the part where you throw me in the pipeline?”

At the mention of the pipeline Caitlin’s eyes widened and Barry began to shake his head, both sharing a look horror at the thought of doing that.

“We wouldn’t do that!” Caitlin said quickly, her heels clacking on the floor as she made her way over to Cisco. Hesitating as she reached out, Caitlin gently touched Cisco’s arm and said with a hopeful smile, “We want to talk with you. Know why you’re here.”

“Yeah,” Barry agreed through a mouthful of what looked like blueberry donut, “I mean, you’re from another earth! That’s awesome!”

“You know that?” Cisco asked skeptically.

“Oh yeah,” Dante said, catching Cisco’s attention from where he sat at the computers. Sipping at his coffee, Dante shrugged, “Multiple earths occupying the same area in space, all vibrating at different frequencies, what’s not to know?”

“You only know that because I told you,” Barry whined, picking crumbs off his shirt.

“You told me nothing,” Dante said with a roll of his eyes, “I googled it.”

“Ignore him,” Caitlin said, grasping Cisco’s hand gently. Tugging him towards the sugar and caffeine, she added, “He’s just...surprised. We all are.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Cisco mumbled, taking the cup of coffee offered him.

Holding the warm cup in his hands, Cisco tried not to stare at Dante for too long, but considering everyone kept looking at him like he was the eighth wonder of the world it didn’t seem like too big a deal.

“So,” Barry said, seeming to be the least effected by the fact Cisco was from another world. “Where’re you from anyway?”

Blinking at the question, Cisco snagged one of the chocolate glaze donuts and said, “Earth-1 Central City. It’s not that different from here.” Sparing a glance at Dante, Cisco began to mentally count the sprinkles on his donut before adding, “I mean, every world has their differences, but as far as world changing events go everything’s pretty similar.”

“You said Earth-1,” Caitlin said, a powdered donut hole pinched between two fingers, “What does that make our earth?”

“Really cool,” Cisco said, taking a swig of his coffee. “We don’t have merch on our earth, so everyone’s going to be hella jealous. But that’s not what you meant.”

“No,” Caitlin said, shaking her head.

“Figures,” Cisco shrugged. “This is Earth-14, and you don’t get to argue with that numerical value. I get enough of that already.”

Listening as Caitlin began babbling to Barry about the possibilities of multiple earths, Cisco spared a glance towards Dante. If the idea of meeting E-14 Dante wasn’t weird enough, knowing he was a lookalike to Dante’s dead brother was even weirder and made Cisco uncomfortable.

“So Cisco,” Caitlin began only to cut herself off, “Do you go by Cisco? Or Francisco?”

“Just Cisco.”

“Alright, would you would be okay if I ran some tests to see how you genetically compare?”

“Trust me sister, everything’s going to be the same,” Cisco said, remembering how frustrated Earth-1 Caitlin had been when all of Harry’s tests came back the same as Eowells.

“Still,” Caitlin said, excitement in her tone as she pressed on, only for her phone to ring. Sighing as she picked up the device, Caitlin stood up and moved to answer it, but not before pointing a finger at Barry and hissing, “Don’t touch that donut.”

Waiting until Caitlin left the cortex to take the blueberry donut she mentioned, Barry dug into the pastry with a grin.

“She’s gonna kick your ass,” Dante smirked, meeting Cisco’s eyes for a brief moment before turning his attention back to the speedster.

“I’ll buy her more,” Barry said between sips of coffee.

“You said that last time,” Dante muttered, earning a glare from Barry.

Breathing a laugh at the interaction, Cisco tugged at one of the bracelets on his wrists. Even if everyone was nice and didn’t plan on sticking him in the pipeline or injecting him with contrast dye, he was still uncertain as to why they were keeping him cuffed. Unless they planned on keeping him here as some sort of...replacement? That didn’t seem right. Dante couldn’t even look him in the eye, which would make trying to keep Cisco difficult. Besides, nobody could replace a brother, Cisco knew that better than anyone.

Then Caitlin was back in the cortex, still on her phone but seemingly wrapping up the call.

“—okay,” Caitlin said as she pulled out a chair to sit down, “I’ll ask him, but I make no promises. Right, bye.” Sighing as she hung up, Caitlin looked at the box of donuts before turning her attention to Barry. “You ate my donut.”

“I’ll get you another,” Barry said, raising his arms to defend his head as Caitlin swatted his shoulder.

“I said to leave it alone!” Caitlin exclaimed, her mouth turned down in a frown. 

“I’ll get you more,” Barry insisted, giving Caitlin what could only be described as puppy eyes, “Promise.”

“You’re insufferable,” Caitlin smiled, pressing a kiss to Barry’s cheek before picking out another powdered donut. “I’m holding you to that.”

Cisco knew he was staring while Barry leaned in to give Caitlin a peck on the cheek, but in all fairness how couldn’t he? His two best friends’ doppelgangers were...together? Kissing? He wouldn’t be telling E-1 Caitlin and Barry about this, and he _definitely_ wouldn’t be mentioning this to Iris.

“So who called?” Dante asked, rolling his eyes at the display in front of him.

Sitting up and straightening her blouse, Caitlin picked apart her donut while saying, “Eddie. He wants to swing by during lunch, treat us to some leftover cuisine.”

“Johnny’s gonna love that,” Dante snickered.

Raising an eyebrow at the unfamiliar name, Cisco turned his cup in his hands before asking, “Who’s that?”

“You don’t have a Johnny?” Barry asked, his eyes wide and a grin creeping across his face.

“Nope,” Cisco said, shaking his head.

“Lucky,” Dante mumbled into his coffee.

Rolling her eyes at the two men on either side of her, Caitlin rested her hands in front of her and began to explain. “Johnny is Harrison Wells’ brother.”

Well that sucked. It was bad enough when team Flash learned their Harrison Wells wasn’t really who he said he was, he couldn’t imagine what it would be like for a sibling not to know their brother’s body had been taken over.

“His twin brother,” Barry clarified, adding a new level of horror to the revelation. “Just a heads up, he looks exactly like evil Dr. Wells. So...don't freak out?”

“Been there,” Cisco said, waving his hand, “Done that, got the metaphorical t-shirt because Harry wouldn’t let me make a real one.”

Exchanging a series of confused expressions, the three looked to Cisco for further clarification.

“Earth-2 Harrison Wells,” Cisco said, smiling at the opportunity to talk about his lab partner. “Total asshole, but he’s our asshole.”

“You said he was from Earth-2?” Caitlin said skeptically.

Shrugging Cisco said, “He hangs with us most of the time. Keeps me company.”

Nodding in understanding, Caitlin popped another piece of donut in her mouth, sparing a glance at Barry. The look must have meant something, because Barry gave Caitlin’s donut-less hand a squeeze before facing Cisco with a smile.

“So, not to be rude or anything,” Barry started, his expression open and accepting, “But why’re you here? Out of all the earths in the multiverse, why this one, why us?”

There it was, the one question Cisco still hadn’t figured out how to answer. Sure he knew how to lie, but that didn’t mean Cisco was good at lying, especially not to people who had the same faces as his friends. Even with the time he had in his hotel room Cisco hadn’t come up with a good excuse.

Sighing heavily, Cisco rubbed the back of his neck and said, “There isn’t really a good way to say I breached to another world for thanksgiving weekend to spy on my dead brother’s doppelganger, so can we just chalk it up to sightseeing and leave it at that?”

The silence in the cortex was so profound, Cisco was sure he’d be able to hear a pin drop. It sounded funny when he said it, and he’d expected at least a couple awkward laughs before it was brushed under the rug, but judging by the looks he was getting that wouldn’t be happening. The only thing that broke the silence of Cisco’s admission were the loud footsteps in the hallway and the muttering of the man who walked into the cortex a moment later.

“Here’s some advice,” Johnny said, the dark sunglasses he wore obscuring his eyes but leaving the rest of his face visible for Cisco to recognize him. “Don’t use heavy metal as your six in the morning alarm. It’s just a bad idea.”

“We know,” Dante said, unimpressed with the statement.

“Where were you last night?” Caitlin asked, only for Johnny to wince and hold a finger to his lips, indicating she needed to be quiet.

Letting out a long breath Johnny said, “Those waterfront portraits I submitted to the gallery were rejected. Said they were too, ‘picturesque.’ How else is a picture supposed to look?”

“So you got smashed and drank all the good stuff,” Barry said, clearly unimpressed by the man’s behavior.

Judging by the way Caitlin pressed her lips together in a tight line and how Dante looked to the ceiling as if he was begging god to strike the man down, this wasn’t a new occurrence.

“I got smashed and drank all the good stuff,” Johnny affirmed, tipping his glasses down so he could look at everyone, “To be fair none of you have had your art rejected for no reason, and then be told my creative vision is shittier than...” Trailing off, Johnny squinted at Cisco before leaning over to Barry and whispering conspiratorially, “Am I the only one seeing a Cisco over there or can you see him too?”

Even if he barely knew the guy, Cisco was more than ready to be used in a prank against him. The gleam of mischief in Barry’s eyes was unmistakable as he looked right at Cisco and back at Johnny's confused expression.

“What do you mean?”

“There,” Johnny said, pointing a finger at Cisco, his blue eyes wide. “He’s smiling at me.”

“Are you still drunk?” Caitlin asked, looking up at the man with her terrible poker face going unnoticed.

Shaking his head Johnny said dazedly, “Just as hung-over as I can be. What did you put in the last batch of juice? Are you sure you can’t see him?”

Locking eyes with Cisco, Dante maintained a blank expression as he said, “Nope.”

Unable to hold back laughter at the situation, Cisco held his sides as he cracked up, the others’ carefully constructed poker faces crumbling as they joined in. Blinking as he realized he’d been had, Johnny threw his glasses at Barry before stalking over to Cisco and leaning over as if to examine him.

“I called you three times and left text messages,” Caitlin said, “You didn’t answer.”

“You didn’t say there was a Cisco clone,” Johnny said, turning Cisco’s hand over before dropping them in order to look at his eyes. “Interesting. See, I’d love to science the hell out of this with you, but I need a nap first.”

“That’s nice buddy,” Cisco said, pushing the man away, “A donut wouldn’t hurt either.”

Still staring at Cisco with a foggy look, Johnny extended a hand and said, “You’re not wrong. Dr. Jonathan Wells. Chambers. I've had one hell of a night, so I guess it's nice to meet you?”

Cisco couldn’t fault the guy for asking it like a question, and clasped his hand in return, “Cisco Ramon, Earth-1. Go lie down.”

Nodding in agreement, Johnny pointed to the med bay and shuffled off, casting suspicious glances back all the while.

Snickering at the man, Cisco asked, “Is he always like that?”

“Only when his pictures get rejected,” Dante said, stretching his arms above his head.

“Johnny does photography,” Barry said with a wide grin, “He’s pretty good. But, he gets into slumps and goes through all the speedster liquor.”

“What?” Cisco asked. If any human could stomach even a few drops of the concoction Caitlin made for Barry to get drunk without dying would be a miracle, let alone all of it. 

Recognizing the panic on Cisco’s face Barry quickly added, “He’s a speedster too. That’s how we took down evil Dr. Wells.”

“He didn’t expect Johnny to be a metahuman, let alone like Barry,” Caitlin said, worrying her lip between her teeth. “Speaking of, Barry, didn’t we have that thing we needed to do?”

“What—oh the thing!” Barry nodded, his bad acting making it clear how he and Caitlin were trying to evacuate the cortex, probably to give Cisco and Dante time to talk. “Right, we’ll just be out, doing our thing.”

Rolling his eyes while Caitlin dragged Barry out of the cortex, Dante sighed and slumped back in his seat before looking at Cisco and rising to his feet. Following suit, Cisco followed the older man to the workroom he had snuck into the night before. Being invited into the lab gave a different feeling to the room than when Cisco broke in, and he could see just how much he had overlooked in his haste.

A few sets of tools in the corner had a thin layer of dust collecting on them, like they hadn’t been cleaned off properly during the last dusting. The pieces to a half completed set of dampener bracelets lay scattered across a table like they had been picked up to wipe down the surface, and then placed back down to make it seem like nothing was amiss.

The entire room had been maintained the way E-14 Cisco had it before he died, and Cisco had just waltzed in and started playing with stuff. To be fair it was some really cool technology, but the fact still stood that he had been messing around where he really shouldn’t have been

“So you came here for me?” Dante asked, leaning against a desk to look at Cisco with a curious expression.

“Don’t give yourself too much credit,” Cisco said, mirroring Dante’s stance at a desk across from him. “I wanted to see everyone else too. How things were different.”

“Fair enough,” Dante shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest. “But you still came to see me.”

“My first mistake,” Cisco muttered, tapping his fingers against one of the dampening bracelets.

Slipping into silence, Cisco found himself studying Dante’s body language and how tense he was. Cisco was tense too, but he was better at hiding it. Maybe it was a bad thing that he’d had so much practice concealing his feelings from the team. He’d have to ask Harry about that.

Dante was the one who finally broke the silence by asking, “What happened to him? Your version of me.”

“Car crash,” Cisco answered, proud that his voice didn’t waver. “Drunk driver rammed right into the drivers side going eighty in a fifty mile zone.”

“I’m sorry,” Dante said, and unlike so many of the condolences Cisco had received, he believed the sincerity of this one.

“It sucks,” Cisco said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at the floor, “That’s part of why I came here. I vibed you and your Cisco getting along and was jealous I never got to have that.”

“You didn’t get along?” Dante asked confusedly.

“Nope,” Cisco said with a shake of his head, “We just started to fix things when it happened.”

Nodding in understanding Dante twisted one of the rings on his fingers, probably a nervous habit he wasn’t aware of.

“What about you?” Cisco asked, propping himself up on the desk. “What happened to me here?”

Frowning at the question, Dante furrowed his brow before answering, “There was an accident with a metahuman, some technology that was meant to help her, and a rouge just trying to cause trouble. Barry was supposed to be there, but he was held up at the station so Cisco was the only one on site when...”

Sighing heavily, Dante ran a hand over his face. Until now he had been avoiding Cisco’s gaze, but Dante threw that all away by locking eyes with him.

“There wasn’t anything left. Just...dust.”

Nothing. Cisco thought it was bad when he had to confirm the body at the morgue, but having nothing to bury was worse in every way.

“I’m sorry,” Cisco mumbled, knowing there were no words to express how he felt and no way for anything he said to heal that wound.

“Thank you,” Dante nodded, still looking at Cisco with an intense gaze.

Breaking eye contact, Cisco picked up one of the tools next to him and began to turn it over in his hands. Reminiscing over how their brothers who were essentially each other died wasn’t how Cisco thought this interaction with Dante would go, but he hadn’t really thought about how any interaction with this Dante would go.

They sat in silence for a while, taking in the quiet hum of the air around them until Cisco asked, “How’d you get involved in all this anyway?”

An involuntary smile crept across Dante’s face as he stated, “You. After Snart and Rory kidnapped us and iced my hands, I wanted to know what my little brother was getting into. Accidentally signed up long term as the team hacker.”

“You know computers?” Cisco asked, surprised at the revelation. Sure his Dante had been interested in that when he was younger, but he quickly poured everything he had into piano, leaving Cisco the only one with an avid interest in technology.

“Been coding for years,” Dante said, leaning forward. “I had to take you to this robotics thing at the library once and ended up taking a free coding class. Loved it.”

“Huh,” Cisco said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You still play piano?”

“Not as much as I used to, but yeah,” Dante nodded, holding his hands out like they were on display, “These hands are multitalented. What about you, play any instruments?”

Briefly remembering the guitar propped up against his living room wall, Cisco shook his head and said, “Not really. A little guitar I guess, but nothing impressive.”

Humming in what seemed to be approval, Dante said, “You’re still the team tech guy?”

“Yep,” Cisco nodded, cracking a smile at the miniscule title. “I need that on a mug.”

“No you really don’t,” Dante smirked, “I know for a fact you have enough mugs.”

“Do I?” Cisco joked, earning a snicker.

Relaxing as the atmosphere changed into something comfortable, Cisco tried to imagine this back home. It was difficult, but he could almost pretend this was his.

“Just so I know,” Cisco said, catching Dante’s attention, “Do you plan on keeping me here or what? It’s not that I’m not enjoying this, but if you are, you’re in for one hell of a custody battle.” 

Breathing a laugh at the remark, Dante shook his head and said, “No. Not keeping you. Although Caity might try.”

Smiling at the comment, Cisco asked, “So what now?”

Thinking for a moment, Dante shook his head and said, “I don’t know. But this is nice.”

“Yeah, it is,” Cisco admitted, feeling a little guilty at how much he liked Earth-14. “Does that mean should I visit again sometime?”

“What?”

Immediately Cisco began to backtrack, wondering just how badly he screwed up by suggesting he make his presence on Earth-14 a regular thing.

“Never mind, we can forget that, I was just thinking out loud--”

“Cisco.”

“I don’t want to overstep or cause trouble—”

“Cisco,” Dante said more urgently, prompting Cisco to clamp his mouth shut. Smiling brightly like Cisco’s rambling made his day, Dante said, “Visits would be good. None of us, have been coping well since the accident, especially me.”

“Me neither,” Cisco said softly, remembering how he had gone out of his way to blame Barry.

Fixing Cisco with a look that only an older brother could manage, Dante said, “You wouldn’t be replacing him.”

“Not my intention,” Cisco said, a chill running down his spine at the thought of that. “And you wouldn’t be replacing my Dante.”

“No,” Dante said, shaking his head, “But we could...we could help each other. We could get to know each other.”

Cisco thought about the offer. He liked that. Getting to know this Dante and his team might be the outlet he needed to recover. If anything it would give him a chance to mourn Dante’s death while helping someone else through the grieving process.

“I can vibe with that,” Cisco grinned, more than willing to get along.

“Good,” Dante breathed, letting out a small nervous laugh. “Because I’m pretty sure Caity would have my head if I didn’t get you to come back at least once.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Cisco smiled, “I’m a joy to be around.”

Gesturing to the door, Dante asked, “Ed’s bringing leftover turkey dinner for lunch. You want to stay for that and meet him?”

Cisco realized this was more than a chance to have something close to a brother, it was an opportunity to be a friend without worrying about the city, suit upgrades, psychic gorillas, or the team.

“I’d like that,” Cisco said, holding his hands up to show the bracelets. “But can we take these off or tone them down a bit?”

Spitting a curse, Dante began to fiddle with tiny controls on the sides of the bracelets, turning down their output to the point Cisco could feel the vibrations in the room humming around them. They were handy devices, and he’d have to ask if he could keep them when he went home. He hadn’t had a single headache since Barry slapped them on, and maybe they’d help him with that post-vibes.

Smiling as Dante began to mutter under his breath while he worked to match the two bracelets output, Cisco realized he did come up with something to do over the weekend.

There was no way in hell he wouldn't be telling Harry about this.

**Author's Note:**

> So that happened. I hope you enjoyed reading this and forgive the awkward writing, I really just cranked this out in a handful of days. Flashpoint is different here because I say so, and the only real change that occurred from it was Dante's death.
> 
> I really had fun with this even if there were times I wanted to just stop and scream at my thought process, but I'm very proud of myself for seeing it through to completion. The only downside to finishing this monster is that I have an idea playing in my mind for another chapter to add to this and I don't know if I should write it or just leave this as is.
> 
> Hope you all have a great day and remember to drink some water and wash your hands!


End file.
